Dave I wouldn't blame it on the small breeders particularily. There's been some big players that played hell with the BP market in the last year or so.

I figure it this way, why mess up a market you yourself want to be part of just to make a fast buck. It's not like me holding a snake until I get what I consider an appropriate price for it is devaluing that snake. Every day it's here it's eating, growing, representing the quality of it's genetics and becoming I figure even more interesting for a buyer to purchase as it matures. So I spend some cash on feeding and housing it while I wait for the right buyer. I'd rather do that then screw up a market, and my friends in it, just to quickly line my own pockets.

Big time or small time breeders - I don't think it matters really. For me and my family what matters is the value we personally place on these snakes and the value of our time, care and years of planning to produce a hatchling. If a person sees them as only scaley dollar signs, then I think some very poor long term decisions get made. You have to know your bottom line, that's only smart business sense but for me anyways, that bottom line cannot be the driving force in why we ever decided to breed or sell a snake in the first place.